File this in the “Never Going to Happen” folder. The Hill reports that Jewish Voice for Peace is sending Mitt Romney a petition demanding that he apologize for his comments about Palestinian culture:
Jewish Voice for Peace has called Romney’s comments at a Jerusalem fundraiser last Monday “racist and ignorant.” Romney says he did not mean to denigrate Palestinians when he credited “the power of at least culture” and the “hand of providence” for Israel’s superior economy.
The petition, addressed to “Governor Mitt Romney,” urges him to apologize. …
“Your comments were not a reflection of the values Jews, Americans, and our allies hold dear. We call on you to apologize to the Palestinian people for your willful lack of understanding of the facts on the ground and the racist assumptions behind them.”
The Hill calls Jewish Voice for Peace a “liberal Jewish group,” but it’s far more accurate to describe it as a fiercely anti-Israel group. JVP is one of the most outspoken supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel in the U.S. As NGO Monitor’s Gerald Steinberg and Yitzhak Santis wrote in the New York Jewish Week last month, JVP “provide[s] a useful cover for non-Jews to justify gratuitous Israel-bashing.” Steinberg and Yitzhak wrote that JVP’s Rabbinical Council has defended Sabeel, a Palestinian Christian group which has dabbled in false deicide charges against Jews. The Anti-Defamation League has written:
Sabeel often compares the Palestinians to the crucified Jesus, and Israel to his murderers, alluding to the ugly and false deicide charge against all the Jewish people – a concept rejected by prominent historians and repudiated by the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian denominations.
In his paper, The Zionist Ideology of Domination Versus the Reign of God, the organization’s Jerusalem-based director, Rev. Naim Ateek, compares what he calls the “powers of darkness” against which Jesus fought to “the evil structures that have dominated the Palestinians for the last hundred years.”
In his Easter message in spring 2001, Ateek described the political situation in these words: “It seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him…Palestinian men, women, and children being crucified. Palestine has become one huge golgotha. The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily. Palestine has become the place of the skull.”
The JVP is a fringe group that doesn’t have standing to influence mainstream politics in the first place. But it’s comical that it would demand an apology from Romney about his supposedly “offensive” comments, after its Rabbinical Council defended a group such as Sabeel.
Im ain li mi li? If we Jews are not for ourselves first, do not expect anyone else to be for us either.
My late grandfather would say this horrendous organization is a shonda for the goyim.
Jewish Voice For Peace is niether Jewish, nor a Voice, nor is it's goal Peace. nThey should rename themselves Kapo Fringe For Destruction of Israel
Or As a Jews for Peace. Or Alibi Jews (I forget whose phrase that was) for Peace. Or, per Howard Jacobson, just plain ASHamed Jews.
Most Palestinians reject all Jewish rights to self-determination, and even the right of Jews to live in any part of Israel at all, even under Palestinian rule in 2012. n nToday their is a chorus of Palestinian voices that reject a two state compromise. n nuprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/ is upset that Jewish Voices for Peace (Jews who want to destroy Israel) dares to speak for Palestine. They don't want to hear from Jews at all, even those that are 100% in agreement with them. n nLike the Nazis, they believe they have the right to get rid of Jews whenever they want to do that. n nIn 1938 they rejected the Peel Report partition plan for Palestine Under the Peel Plan the Jewish State would be about one third of the area of the Palestine Mandate. That resulted in the later 1947 partition plan with much more territory for Jewish State, but still about 50-50. They rejected that also. n nAfter Israel was attacked without any provocation by Jordan in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank-Judea-Samaria. n nFor the first time about twenty years ago, the Palestinian Authority and later the Saudis, said it would accept a partition of Palestine. Israel would give up the West Bank-Judea-Samaria including Eastern Jerusalem. It also said it would accept a transfer of 2.5% of territory in a land swap. n nBut Israel would have to accept millions of Palestinians into Israel in return for giving up the territory. n nIsrael offered Palestinian independence for more than 90% of the West Bank and Gaza, and would very likely accept a compromise of 95% as well. It was willing to provide financial compensation for 1948 refugees irregardless of whether they left voluntarily or not. This has also been rejected. n nToday the Pa is not interested in sitting down to negotiate with Israel. It is interested in reconciling with Hamas. n nI believe this is the reason talks have ended. nSettlements are also one of the disputed issues. When Israel froze settlements for 10 months they only agreed to sit down three weeks before the expiration of the 10 months. n nA de-facto Palestinian Hamas state exists in the Gaza Strip which completely rejects and Jewish political, religious, or human rights. It kills Jewish children on purpose. n nI don't know what the future will bring. I would like to see a compromise. n nIn any compromise it is Israel that would give Land for "Peace". Palestinians would give up claims on Israel and assure Israelis that they will not repeat what Hamas has done. n nBut that scenario is not happening without confidence building measures. All recent Israeli confidence building gestures have been ignored and not reciprocated. n nWith the Islamic Arab Spring the Palestinians are not likely to offer gestures to the Jewish people of Israel.